To You
A few weeks ago, one of the women told me, “You have made a way for us. Thank you.” While I definitely got teary-eyed hearing her say those kind words, I didn’t hear that as a singular “you” but instead as a collective “you.” Her “thank you” goes well beyond me.
“Making a way” for these ladies happened because of a huge group of people. It was not a solo venture on my part. I may have been the hands and feet here in-country with these women, but it took all of us to get it done. God created His body to accomplish big things together. Things much, much grander than one person could pull off on their own.
YOU…
who prayed for these ladies
who supported me financially
who bought project supplies
who sponsored new sewing machines
who let me out of obligations for 3 months
who sent encouraging emails
who sent packages to me and the girls
who simply followed along on the blog
YOU ALL made a way for the ladies of Peace House. I often felt like the ambassador sent on behalf of a huge team, knowing that many of you were investing yourselves in what’s happening here from wherever you are in the world. Thank you. From me. And from these ladies who you have helped make a way for.
This story is not over. The women are doing well, but they will have struggles ahead. They still need your prayers. While I don’t know exactly what our collective roles will be going forward, I’ll keep you in the know as I know.
Seriously, thank you for believing in me and believing that God is still doing work in people.
The Last Report
• Bringing back LOTS of Ndabona products – jewelry, quilts, pillow shams, headbands, and more. If you’re interested in hosting a trunk show at your home, church or organization let me know. I’ll set everything up so that you and your people can shop!
• I failed to mention that when we visited the girls’ homes, each one served a meal. That equals out to 8 meals, 2 chais, and 6 cokes all within an 11 span. Shwoooo.
• “Go slow to
go fast.” That’s a mantra I’ve
seen the Shelby’s live out here in regard to their ministry with Peace
House. It’s good and has
challenged me a ton.
• Ndabona has an official shop set up at the Peace House. The ladies’ products are displayed and ready for purchase! They are so proud to see their hard work looking SO good.
• Found the best hammocking spot last week. It took over an hour of hiking to get to, but it was worth it. My hammock hung between 2 tropical trees, right over the edge of Lake Kivu, and there was a gorgeous view of Rwanda and the Congo right across the lake.
• My hiking trip to and from that incredible hammocking spot was quite the adventure, including: lots of goats on the path. lots of goat poop on the path that I stepped in. Beautiful views of some Lake Kivu islands and fishermen. Using the bathroom in thorny bushes, where I may or many not have peed on my own foot due to the thorns. Rounding the mountain to find a man who most likely saw my bare butt in those thorns. Giving out Polaroid pictures to local people. Agreeing to take photos of some local fishermen while they were in the water, not knowing that would mean they’d strip down to their VERY hole-y underwear to get in.
• Last week was Rwanda’s annual week of mourning for the 1994 Genocide. It’s estimated that 1 million people were killed in 100 days during that time. The Genocide is a defining event for all Rwandans, and most were affected significantly by the events during that time. The week of mourning was a very somber time.
• Rwanda is a gorgeous place, and I have about 1,000 pictures to prove it. A lot of times when I’m taking in it’s beautiful scenery, I wonder what this gorgeous land looked like during the Genocide. I think about the unnecessary bloodshood, the neighbors who turned on each other, and the people running scared for their lives. It’s hard to imagine such evil things taking place among such beauty. But I think that’s how life is in this broken world….what God intends to be beautiful is twisted or marred just enough to make it ugly and sometimes even indistinguishable.
• I survived Cryfest ’13. The Peace House women and I had a tough time saying good-bye. It was a sweet time.
• By the time you read this, I’ll be somewhere mid-air headed back to the States. To be honest, I’m really nervous about stepping back into my life there. How do I inject what’s happened here in Rwanda into my life in Louisiana? In some ways it feels like I’ve got a huge final exam ahead of me. If I’ve really learned all the things I say I have these past 90 days, then it’ll show up when I’m back at home. We shall see!
A Day in the Village
Back in February, some friends and I spent a day with women in a local village. The ladies are part of a co-op and get together at someone’s home a couple of times a week to make jewelry and visit with one another.
The home where we spent the day.
We were dropped off at the end of a windy, dirt road that got thinner and thinner until it became more like a trail. Then we walked another 30 minutes through banana trees and crop fields to get to the home we were visiting. Eight women were waiting to show us what an average day looks like for someone in the village. And it was a full day!
Our host for the day, Mediatrice.
Preparing sweet potatoes for lunch.
• I hoed alongside the women and picked
soybeans, all while chickens were running loose under our feet.
• The cow needed food, so we cut grass with a small machete.
• I learned the secret of carrying things on your head….banana tree leaves rolled into a crown-type thing. It goes between your head and whatever you want to balance and carry up there.
• The group walked a good distance to collect water from a well tucked in the middle of sweet potato fields.
• Two elderly, barefooted women showed us how to dig up sweet potatoes with a combination of garden hoes and their toes.
• Lunch, which included all foods grown on the land right there, was beans, cassava, sweet potatoes (best I've EVER eaten), pineapple, and avocado.
Ending the day with dancin' and singin'.
• Spent the afternoon weaving jewelry made from sisal plants. They showed us how to open the giant sisal leaves and strip it down to the string that's in the center. Then it’s dyed and woven together.
• Rwandan-style dancing and singing ended the day.
All of the women were lovely and very excited to share their day-to-day experiences with us. They asked us about as many questions as we asked them!
I posted more pictures from the day over on Facebook. Check them out here.
Learning to weave jewelry...and laughing a good bit, too.
Everywhere, Among Everyone
Every once in while I have a day where I wonder how I got to this place, thinking on what a privilege it is to know my friends here and see God at work among them. Saturday was one of those days. As I was going to bed that night, Acts 10:34-36 came to mind…
“It’s God’s own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open. The Message he sent to the children of Israel—that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again—well, he’s doing it everywhere, among everyone."
Cynthia and her daughter Kayla.
Saturday allowed me to see those truths in action firsthand when Charlotte, the Girls’ Program Director, and I spent the day visiting the ladies’ homes. It’s been one thing to spend everyday with the girls at Peace House, having conversations, working side-by-side, and studying God’s word together. However, being in their homes, meeting their families, and hearing stories over meals they had prepared was an entirely new level of friendship building.
Beatha's daughter was all smiles.
The girls often ask why it feels like God has snubbed them, why they are the ones who are poor or suffering, why they are the ones who have to work so hard to get by while people in America appear to be blessed. It’s always a difficult conversation. It’s easy for me - a person who’s never wanted for food, slept on a dirt floor, or had to walk further than down the hall to get clean water – to respond by saying God loves and desires to bless all people equally. It’s hard for my friends here to accept that. Unfortunately, we live in a broken world. One where people aren’t treated fairly and life appears to be “more blessed” for some than others.
To be honest, I’ve wrestled a lot with questions over the last few weeks. Why on top of everything else does Eve have a son with mental and physical handicaps? Why did Dorcas begin prostitution at the age of 10 because she felt it was her only chance of survival? Why is Esther so traumatized that sometimes she can’t stop her hands from shaking? I still don’t understand it all, and I certainly don’t like how this broken world treats people.
What I do know is what Peter declared in those verses from Acts…God plays no favorites, even when the world appears to. Through Jesus things are being put back together again, so even in this broken and hurting world, there is hope. And He’s doing it everywhere, among everyone – people here and people wherever you are.
God has not forgotten these girls. And He has not forgotten you.
Over and over again on Saturday, God reminded me of these truths as we visited the girls’ homes.
Dorcas with her mother and brothers.
Dorcas’s mother shared about the years that her daughter disappeared for days at a time and how as a teenager would bite her when she was angry. As we sat there, Dorcas laid her head on her mother’s shoulder, and they spoke of how these days the two of them advise one another and work together to help the family survive.
Beatha beamed when we walked into her 2-room home that was about the size of my SUV. She went on and on about how beautiful it was and how happy she was to have a place for she and her daughter to live, even if it was without electricity and the bathroom was a graveyard. Her depth of contentment and joy runs deeper than anyone I’ve ever met.
Josie
Josie, single and living alone, shared how she’d been able to save enough money to open a bank account recently and then told us she dreamed of owning her own business one day. People here don’t dream. That’s a privilege reserved for those who have security and who don’t worry about day-to-day needs. Josie’s figured out how to dream of a better life.
Eve with her twin sons.
After sleeping in a bar and under some mango trees, Josiane recently moved into a small home of her own, away from the people and ghosts of her past. Every once in a while, she still has dreams about being tormented by demons, and it’s a daily struggle for her to trust in Jesus’s promise that His way of life is good. She pinned papers on her walls with statements about what Jesus has done in her life and what the Bible says. She had even drawn a picture of thorny soil and written that she didn’t want be that.
Esther, the quiet, nervous one without any family, was all smiles and laughter. The children in her compound followed her around and sought her help with everything. I learned that people now believe her to be the best advice giver and seek her out for help, just like the children.
Eve loved her children so well. For a woman who has been cheated and mistreated by those who claimed to “love” her, she still has a heart full of love to give her twin sons and patience for the one who will never be able to walk or talk.
In every home, even without the girls or their families having to say so, it was easy to see the transformation in their lives. They want God and are ready to do as He says. In this broken world, they have found Jesus, the one who is putting them and their families back together again. God has blessed them abundantly.
